Like any organism, it has the will to survive...

They come out and admit that they haven't foiled any terrorist plots of which they're aware, but they "argue that the random nature of the searches and the presence of armed officers serve as a deterrent and bolster public confidence."

In other words, you don't see any elephants around here, do you? So the elephant repellant must be working! Also left unexplained is how the public's confidence is supposed to be bolstered by getting their crotch randomly sniffed by that noted Fourth Amendment legal expert, Fluffy the Uberhund.

I am reminded of the joke about the guy stopped by the soldier who demands to inspect the contents of the trunk. Because he has no handbrake, he asks if the soldier will get behind the wheel and hold it steady on the hill while he gets out to open the trunk. The soldier does, the guy goes and opens his trunk, announcing loudly "There is nothing in here!""Very well," calls the soldier from the driver's seat "You may go on your way."

I spent too much time working on projects and programs with DHS and their red headed stepchild TSA. From the top down there seems to be a culture of when in doubt, fake it. The folks from DOE and DOJ would just shake their heads at the newly minted subject matter experts.

Then on the jet home from DC, some dolt would tell me how the grope and delay made them feel so much safer.

The Bill of Rights is dead. The First Amendment is dead, killed by political correctness. The Second is dead, killed by the NFA and GCA '68, and all that followed.The Third is dead, killed by the Patriot Act. After all, who needs to quarter troops in your home, when a wiretap will suffice?The Fourth died with the TSA and the patriot act.The Fifth is dead now that the military can detain or kill you without trial, merely by claiming that you are a terrorist.The Sixth is a prisoner at Gitmo.The Eighth is being waterboarded.The ninth and tenth have been ignored for decades.